


Rays of Empowerment

by OmnipresentNuance



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftermath, Comics, Convention, Gen, Regret, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27288049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmnipresentNuance/pseuds/OmnipresentNuance
Summary: Desperation and overly passionate devotion to one’s favorite hobby can sometimes blind someone to the point that they make a series of poor, rash decisions that may come at the expense of loved ones. Having nearly costing his sisters’ cameo roles, Lincoln feels like he needs to make a difficult choice about that very same favorite hobby. Indeed, a fic fit for cons and kings.
Kudos: 1





	Rays of Empowerment

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! Yes, after a month and a half of inactivity, I have indeed returned! I do apologize to everyone for the absence. In all honesty, between all my business on Twitter and making fanart something I've continued to do a good deal of, fanfiction has decidedly become more of a part time thing for me. But fret not, for I still love doing this and will take the time to do so whenever I do in fact find said time.
> 
> Now with that said, let's get down with what I've finally managed to produce this month. If you've not figured it out by now, this is an aftermath fanfic based on "Kings of the Con". I'd say it makes sense that this one's being uploaded given we are a few weeks removed from that episode's one year anniversary. This was another one of those stories that is an example of when I've had the general idea and layout of it in my head for quite a while and only since the beginning of this month did I finally get around start working on it. Also, I will mention that since I've only ever seen "Kings of the Con" twice, I may not have all the details of that episode correct. Because of that, you could consider this one a very slight AU. But again, this is a hypothetical aftermath story, not a full blown AU or alternate ending.
> 
> Okay, I do believe that's all which needs to be said for an intro. After a decently long absence, I'm proud to say once again read on and hopefully enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

How far would one go to attain something they really wanted? To what methods would they go to do so? Additionally, would they be even willing to undercut or outright sabotage the chances of others in the process, unintentionally or otherwise, up to and including those who mean the most to you?

If that individual's name is Lincoln Loud, then sadly all three of those would apply.

It all started when Lincoln and his best friend Clyde McBride learned that an Ace Savvy convention in town had a contest where those who had the best costumes would be bestowed upon them the title of Kings of the Con and better yet, cameo roles in the upcoming Ace Savvy film. Both boys immediately knew this was something they wanted and to increase their chances of winning, they also asked Lincoln's sisters to join with them as the Full Deck, the characters Lincoln and Clyde created that were based on the girls which were part of a comic they entered into another contest, won it and had their comic turned into an official one. However, the sisters weren't at all interested in coming at first, at least not until their minds changed once the cameos were mentioned.

Following a long presentation about Ace Savvy and getting their costumes arranged, the group arrived at the convention, but almost immediately, the sisters upstaged Lincoln and Clyde at just about every turn and though it netted them plenty of attention, it wasn't so much so for the boys to the point they overheard the judges of the contest say they weren't so high on them given they've seen one too many Ace Savvys and One-Eyed Jacks, but certainly were for the girls.

In desperation, Lincoln figured that he and Clyde needed to something so spectacular to impress the judges and secure their spot alongside the girls. That involved the over the top plan to kidnap the Kitty, one of the stars of the film and one of Ace Savvy's arch enemies, make it look like he was kidnapped by someone else, then ride to the rescue to come off as heroes.

But like a lot of schemes of theirs, things didn't go as planned for Lincoln and Clyde. The Kitty put up an immense fight and everything look bleak for the boys. Fortunately, thanks to some quick thinking and the use of a spotlight and mask as a makeshift distress beacon, the sisters sprang into action and helped save the boys before the latter two locked the Kitty back inside his crate.

When the judges saw Lincoln and Clyde having secured the Kitty, they declared them Kings of the Con, even though they intended on awarding the distinction to the girls. Upon realizing this meant they weren't going to be included alongside him and Clyde, Lincoln ultimately confessed to the whole misdeed, which naturally and perhaps understandably didn't sit well with his sisters. He apologized them, had he and Clyde get disqualified and the girls were instead crowned the winners.

Despite what the boys did, the judges did say they would have Lincoln and Clyde involved in some manner or another in the film anyway...as the Kitty's personal pooper scoopers.

In the aftermath, the boys continued to sit by while the girls posed endlessly for pictures of their many new fans and admirers. Though happy for them, Lincoln couldn't help but feel very guilty about the whole shenanigans with the Kitty that nearly cost his sisters everything. He motioned with his hand to Clyde to follow him as they approached the girls.

"Uh, guys?" Lincoln inquired to them.

The sisters took a brief pause and looked over to the boys. The expressions on their faces were more mixed this time around at least compared to when they first learned of their brother and best friend's scheme. Some clearly still looked at them with annoyance and even scorn, but others were a little more plain faced; not necessarily mad nor sympathetic.

"Hey, would it be all right if Clyde and I headed home ourselves? I think it's safe to say you're gonna be pretty busy for the next while soaking in all the adulation you're all getting. Plus, I bet you've got some talking to do with the judges about those cameos. So with all that and everything that's gone down, I'm guessing the last thing you want to see or be anywhere near are the boys who nearly ruined it all…" Lincoln said before sighing and pointing a finger to himself. "Especially this one right here."

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, each of the sisters' faces changed gradually. Those who were still mad softened their expressions somewhat, while those who were more neutral shifted to a slight amount of concern. But none of them had a chance to speak when Lincoln sighed again more sadly and began leaving, with Clyde following close by.

As a result, even as people around them clamored for more pictures and such, the girls looked at each other now with a small amount of growing collective concern.

* * *

After taking a bus ride, Lincoln and Clyde continued on foot on their way to their homes. It was an almost entirely quiet walk, with Lincoln maintaining a slouched position for most of the duration. The guilt which had been building since the whole frenzy of antics from earlier on had only gotten worse. The more he thought about, he realized that he essentially put his affinity of comics and Ace Savvy to an unhealthily degree without ever giving the consideration over how his sisters would feel and certainly not giving thought there was the chance they'd be pushed aside from getting the cameos alongside himself and Clyde.

"Hey, you doing okay, buddy?" Clyde asked.

"Doesn't it look like I'm doing okay?" Lincoln responded almost bitterly.

"Whoa, settle down there. I'm just concerned about you is all." Clyde said taken aback.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry…" Lincoln apologized, sighing heavily. "I've been feeling worse and worse with each passing second about everything that I'm responsible for."

"Wait, what? Don't you mean what _we're_ responsible for?" Clyde questioned perplexed.

"No, Clyde, I'm absolving you of any responsibility in this case," Lincoln replied with a shake of his head. "That whole disaster of a scheme was my idea from the start and you could've and honestly should have had every chance in the world to stop me before things went totally out of hand."

"Well, I guess that can be true and though I do appreciate the thought, I'm more than willing to take my share of the blame. You're my best pal and if disaster should strike, we both go down together." Clyde proudly said as he put an arm around Lincoln.

"Heh...thanks I suppose," Lincoln said, trying to show a slight grin. "Well, we're just about to come up to your place, so I can head back to my home by myself the rest of the way."

"You sure about that? I don't mind accompanying you." Clyde offered.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the offer, though. See you around." Lincoln said.

The two shared a brief hug, then waived and wished each other well before heading off their own directions.

As Clyde went further off into the distance, the semblance of a grin on Lincoln's face quickly faded while he continued his journey home. He thought again of his sisters, believing they were still relishing in all the attention they got and gushed on about their future film roles. Again, he tried to maintain some level of happiness for them, but he also simultaneously dreaded what could come about when they did eventually come back home. At best, he assumed they'll give him the cold shoulder for the rest of the day and at worst, he thought they will come down on him hard for his poor decisions.

No matter what, Lincoln took a deep breath and continued on his way.

* * *

Back at the convention, the girls finally found some time to themselves.

"Ahh...finally a bit of break. I mean, a queen like myself loves all the attention and buzz, but it's nice to get some downtime all the same." Lola said.

Most everyone else spoke in overlapping terms of agreement. However, the lack of such from at least one didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey, is there something wrong, Leni?" Lucy asked.

"Huh...what?" Leni said a little confusedly. "Oh, yeah, I'm totes fine."

"I dissent from such an assertion, second eldest sibling," Lisa spoke up. "Based solely from the slumped angle from which you're sitting, the delay in your response to Lucy's inquiry and the feigned enthusiasm that's acting as a cover for a more downcast disposition, I'd say to quote some of those would say on the street that something is up, and the 'something' I posit has to do in connection with the untoward actions our brotherly unit and his fellow accomplice."

When the child genius of the group finished with her theory, all attention was directed to their fashionista sister, who after seconds of hesitation sighed and opened up.

"Okay, okay, yeah…I don't know if I should be feeling like this, but like, I've started feeling really bad for Lincoln." Leni admitted.

"What? After what he's done?" Lana wondered.

"Yeah, I mean, that wasn't cool of him and Clyde to pull that whole wack scheme under our noses." Luna added.

Soon, just about everyone else muttering something in agreement, which made Leni question if it was a good idea to bring the subject up at all.

However, it would be quickly be shown she actually wasn't totally alone in thinking like she did.

"You know, I'm actually with Leni to an extent," Luan chimed in. "Sure, I'm not gonna excuse what they did, but I must admit as he and Clyde were leaving, I started feeling bad myself when Lincoln said he thinks we don't want him around us for now."

"Yeah, I'll confess that didn't sit well with me, either," Lynn added. "Yeah, he and Clydesdale should've never done what they did, but is it also really worth making them scoop up cat poop as punishment? That would certainly suck for them."

"Don't you mean that it would _stink_?" Luan couldn't help but joke over. "Get it? But seriously, I wouldn't wish that on anyone necessarily, not even after what Lincoln and Clyde did"

"I don't know what you two are complaining about. I'd do that in a heartbeat." Lana said.

"Wow, that's a _complete_ shocker coming from you." Lola noted sarcastically.

Regardless, as the discussion went on, each sister did slowly come around to the same conclusion about Lincoln, even if again none of them excused or justified the actions he and Clyde conducted. It even lead them to an unexpected conclusion.

"You know, is it perhaps too late to talk it over with the judges and see if they can give Lincoln and Clyde better parts? I mean, nothing quite like what we're gonna have, but still it could be worth a shot if at all possible." Lynn posited.

"Well...I guess there wouldn't literally be any harm in it. At the end of the day, though we all agree what they did was wrong and it may take a little time before we can truly forgive them, it's not like they tried going out of there way to push us aside and only have themselves claim everything. So I guess with that it mind, let's try doing that." Lori said.

Now with smiles on their faces, the girls set off to find the judges and see what they could be able to do, if anything at all.

* * *

A couple of minutes of walking later, Lincoln had returned home and almost immediately, he was excitedly greeted by his parents.

"Hey, welcome home, son!" Lynn Sr. said happily.

"So, how did it go at the convention?" Rita asked with just as much eagerness.

"Oh, well...my sisters were declared Kings of the Con and got those movie roles." Lincoln replied rather listlessly.

"Really?! Oh, that's incredible news!" Lynn Sr. excitedly shouted.

"Yeah and...wait, hold on a second, sweetie. What do you mean just your sisters? What about you and Clyde?" Rita inquired, now with more concern.

"It's...it's…" Lincoln tried saying, but stopped and sighed. "I don't want to talk about it. Can you please just leave me alone for a while, Mom and Dad?"

He walked past his parents, went up the stairs and into his room.

* * *

Meanwhile at the convention, the girls had successfully tracked down the judges and were in the process of overwhelming them with multiple pleas on Lincoln and Clyde's behalf.

"Hey, hey, quiet down already!" The male judge shouted.

No sooner than he said that did the girls settle down, giving both judges a moment to recuperate.

"Okay, let me see if I'm getting this straight…" The female judge began saying as she rubbed her temple. "I believe what you're trying to say is that because you've all started to feel sorry for your brother and his friend, that's supposed to be enough for us to feel sorry for them too and make them deserving of something better in the movie?"

"Uh...yeah?" Leni said after a moment of pause. "So, can you do that? Please?"

"All right, first of all, we don't have the power in assigning roles. Our only job is to choose who's going to be Kings of the Con and nothing more," The male judge clarified. "And secondly, even if we did have that power, why would we want to give those dorks anything better?"

"Hey! Those 'dorks' as you just called them are the only reason the characters we're dressed as even exist in the first place!" Lynn angrily countered, contentiously pointing at both judges.

"Yeah, haven't you ever read that comic they did which featured those characters for the first time that was the winner of another contest? Don't the names Lincoln Loud and Clyde McBride ring any bells?" Lucy wondered in addition.

"Okay, yes, technically we are aware of that comic and no, I guess in fairness we didn't know those two were responsible." The female judge conceded, "But be that as it may, it doesn't excuse what they did or change our minds. And frankly, I'm stunned any of you are sympathetic towards them now."

"Believe us, we're not defending what they did. But at the same time, they're literally the only reason we came here in the first place." Lori mentioned.

"Heck, I'll go one further and say we'd never come along with both of those dudes had they not told us about those movie roles. That being said, our bro did say he wanted all of us together and even after what he and his best bud did, I wouldn't want them being stuck with something as grody as scooping cat crud." Luna added.

"Well, it doesn't matter, because our word is final and that cat crud won't scoop itself." The male judge said.

"Yeah, so at this rate you girls are wasting your time." The female judge put it more bluntly.

Believing they've exerted all the effort they could without bearing better results, the girls began leaving and assuming they were far enough from earshot, the judges started talking among themselves.

"Can't wait to see those two doing all that scooping." The male judge said, stifling a chuckle.

"Yeah, especially that one dweeb who is their brother. Did you hear how whiny he sounded during his apology? 'Oh, we're so sorry'. Imagine how he's gonna be like picking up the Kitty's business! What a baby he'll become!" The female judge added with more audible snickering.

Unfortunately for them, the one girl within the back end of the group just about heard everything, and that girl quickly became one very mad Queen of Diamonds.

"Why you…!"

In an instant, Lola lunged after the female judge, stunning the latter with her strength for a six-year-old by pinning her target to the ground.

"No one talks about my big brother like that!" Lola screamed. "I oughta…"

But whatever threat she would follow up with was abruptly interrupted when the male judge yanked her off the female judge. Lola reacted on instinct and turned her sights on him next, but perhaps out impulse alone to avoid her wrath, he swung both his arms to the side, causing her to fly out of his grasp and onto the floor.

As all this happened, the rest of the sisters had arrived to the chaotic scene unfolding, and when Lola was flung to the ground, that made one certain Royal Flush particularly peeved.

"Hey, nobody hurts my twin sister!"

Incensed, Lana rushed in and cracked the male judge in the knee with her pipe wrench, eliciting a loud groan of pain from him and resulting in him falling to the ground.

"Ow! Criminy, what was that for?!" He shouted angrily.

"That's what you get for tossing my sister like yesterday's trash!" Lana said. "Why would you…"

Whatever she would say next didn't come to fruition when she started being dragged away by Lynn. Likewise at the same time, Leni helped Lola up and brought her back along with the rest of their sisters.

"OM-gosh, we're so sorry about all this!" Leni said to the judges.

"Yeah...we're sorry, too…" The male judge said through gritted teeth and in pain. "Because of the fact you couldn't control those brats, consider your roles revoked!"

Upon hearing that, the girls all collectively gasped.

"Wait, what?!" Luan said exasperatedly. "But you just told us you don't have any control over the roles themselves!"

"Yeah, but we _do_ have to ability to declare Kings of the Con or disqualify anyone competing, the latter of which I'm in total agreement with my colleague here! If you're not Kings of the Con anymore, you don't have the roles anymore now, do you?" The female judge fired back. "You better be lucky that he doesn't have anything broken, otherwise we'd sue you to the ground!"

"Actually, you know what, they're not worth it," The male judge said, shaking his leg to get any feeling back. "They're apparently no better than their brother and his friend, who by the way aren't gonna have their roles either. We thought it would be a suitable consequence for their actions and they only got those roles because we talked it over with a couple of the producers. Looks like we'll have another talk with them now to inform them of all the changes in plan."

"Yeah, so thank you very much for wasting our time today!" The female judge rounded out.

As she helped her fellow judge up and assisted him away, the girls let the fact they're not Kings of the Con anymore, nor getting the film cameos really set in. But in addition to that, things were about to unexpectedly heat up between the twins.

"Why did you do that?!" Lola demanded of her sister.

"What? You think I was gonna take you being tossed around laying down?" Lana fired back.

"You could've done something better than acting like an uncivilized brute! It's your fault we lost everything!"

"You attacked that one judge first!"

"Well, she said very mean things about Linky!"

Verbal arguing quickly spiraled into an all out scuffle between the twins. However, it was promptly put to a halt in a hurry.

"Hey, chill out, little dudettes!" Luna shouted as she stepped in to separate them. "What's done is done and there's no point in getting all aggro on each other."

Realizing now there's no sense in getting into a fight knowing they're both at fault for their own respective actions, Lana and Lola put a halt to their bickering and scuffling. At this point, the patently obvious was made clear.

"Aw, so we're not gonna be movie stars?" Leni asked depressingly.

"That's seems like the affirmative at this juncture." Lisa replied with a sigh.

"Yeah…" Lori added. "And I guess there's literally nothing we do about it at this rate. But right now, I think we can all agree that we have other business we need to take care of."

Murmuring in agreement with their oldest sister, the girls knew it was time for them to head on home to take care of that very business.

* * *

A period of time later, the girls arrived back home and noticed right away their parents sitting on the couch in the living room.

"Oh, hey there, girls." Lynn Sr. greeted them somewhat listlessly.

"Hey, Mom and Dad." Lori responded.

"Uh, is there something wrong?" Lucy wondered.

"Yeah, you both don't look or sound too happy." Lynn Jr noted.

"Well, your father and I are worried about Lincoln," Rita said. "He came back home a little while ago and suggested that he and Clyde aren't getting involved in the movie, but said you girls are."

"Uh...well, we can confirm that those dudes aren't involved...but neither are we, either." Luna said hesitantly.

That little revelation took their parents off guard as they both gasped.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"Oh, you know...your twin sister attacks one of the judges because she supposedly said some not so nice things about our brother, then maybe I hit the other judge with a wrench and uh, yeah…" Lana tried explained with some nervous laughter.

"Excuse me? You did what?!" Rita said, her tone quickly changing to that of choler.

"We know, we know, Mom! I mean, we know now that it was wrong…" Lola said, similarly nervously laughing like her twin.

"And that's pretty much why we're not involved in the movie as well. But listen, Mom and Dad, the rest of us all probably have our part of the blame to go around because we didn't stop them in time." Luan noted to them.

"Yeah, and you have literally every right to be upset at all of us," Lori added, following up with a sigh. "But though you may want to lecture us and possibly hand out some kind of punishment, we actually really want to talk things over with Lincoln right now. You said that he's home. Where is he?"

"He's been up in his room pretty much the minute he arrived home and he told us at the time he didn't want to talk to myself or your mother," Lynn Sr. answered. "Maybe you'll have better luck and also hopefully you'll be able to tell us what it is exactly that's made him so upset."

"Yeah, but we will also be talking about what you girls were involved in as well. Got it?" Rita reminded them.

With nods of their heads, the girls then headed upstairs and once arriving at the top, the eldest among them gave out some instructions.

"Okay, you all go over to me and Leni's room while I try to get Lincoln." Lori told them.

The rest of the sisters headed on over to the room. Meanwhile, Lori went up to the door of her brother's room and knocked on it. She didn't announce herself nor did she hear him after knocking. She tried knocking again more forcefully a second time around and eventually, that seemed to do the trick.

"Ugh, I told you I don't…"

But as Lincoln was in the middle of speaking as he opened the door just enough, he stopped once he noticed his older sister standing before him. Just from what she could see from her perspective, Lori could see that Lincoln had changed back to his regular clothes at some point since he returned home.

"Lori?" Lincoln inquired simply.

"Hey there, Lincoln," Lori said, trying to show a little smile. "Listen, if you're willing, can you come over to me and Leni's room for a bit? Our sisters are waiting."

"Um...I'm not so sure about that…" Lincoln replied uneasily.

He tried very slowly in backing away while closing the door, but his sister reached out and put a gentle stop to that.

"Listen, I can get you having some apprehension, but if you're worried that we're going to do nothing but chastise and shame you for everything, that won't be happening on my watch. My hope is that all we want to know is why you and Clyde did what you did and come to an understanding over it all," Lori said. "So...how about it?"

Like she just said, there was continued trepidation across Lincoln's face and demeanor. He did fear some sort of verbal reprisal from his sisters when they did return home, though part of him also believed he may have deserved such to a degree for the lengths he went. Ultimately though, the sympathetic tone that Lori struck and the assurance that she'd put a stop to any potential excessive dressing down from their sisters did give him perhaps that last little bit of effort inside to want to go through with whatever was planned.

"All right…" Lincoln said after a deep breath.

With another little smile, Lori backed away to give Lincoln the space to step out of his room and close the door. However, as the door was being closed, she couldn't help but spot something inside that looked a little suspicious from the corner of her eye. Nonetheless, she put it aside for now and lead her brother to her room.

Upon arriving, the rest of the sisters who were scattered about all tried in smiling as they gave Lincoln a smattering of greetings.

"Hey, uh...didn't think you guys would be back home so soon." He said.

"Neither did we…" Lynn agreed.

As Lori closed the door to the room and then took a seat on her bed, Lincoln looked around and eventually sat down on the floor. For several seconds, no one spoke as everyone knew this was likely going to be a difficult and awkward conversation of sorts.

"All right, bro, you know we have to talk about everything that went down at the con." Luna spoke up.

"I guess so…" Lincoln conceded before sighing. "But I don't know what else that can or needs to be said or known. I completely screwed up massively and almost cost you all everything."

"It's not that simple though, Lincoln. There has to be more to it than that and we'd like to know how this all came about." Lori said.

"Correct, and I do find it most curious how you're burdening yourself in singular guilt without also mentioning your partner in crime in Clyde." Lisa noted.

"Well, that's because on our way home, I told Clyde that I absolved him of blame since I was the one who came with the scheme in the first place and he could've talked me out of it multiple times over." Lincoln clarified.

After making that clear, he chose to stand up and address his sisters further that way.

"And I want to make it clear that my intentions were never to push you guys out so that Clyde and I could have the cameos to ourselves."

Next, he did muster up a small grin.

"Speaking of which, despite all of that and if there's any consolation, at least knowing you're having your roles is gonna make seeing the movie worth it among other reasons when it does come out."

But instead of any agreement, Lincoln looked on as his sisters all remained silent and had awkward expressions on their faces, which only left him puzzled.

"Um...is there something wrong?"

"Sigh...how shall we put this…" Lucy began saying.

"We don't have our roles anymore." Lori put it more bluntly.

It took a few seconds for those words to register in his mind. But when they did, Lincoln's jaw was left slacked.

"Wait, wait, wait... _what?_ " He said aghast. "You're kidding, right?"

"I wish I could say there's some kind of joke to this, but sadly no, that is the truth." Luan responded sadly.

"Yeah, but it's not just us though. We can tell also say that you and Clyde won't have to worry about being pooper scoopers either, because you two don't have those roles, too." Lynn mentioned in addition with a small, uneasy chuckle. "So...yeah."

Still trying to process the first stunning revelation on top of what Lynn just said, Lincoln began pacing the floor in shock and shaking his head.

"I...you...we...I don't get it," He stammered in disbelief. "Why? What happened? And just...how?!"

"Well, perhaps our twin sibling units may divulge to you best the dizzying and bewilderingly fast events that transpired for which resulted in such consequences." Lisa said, motioning over to the twins.

Being referenced by their younger sister, Lana and Lola anxiously stood up and moved closer in the direction of their brother, whose own curiosity was now being raised.

"Um...what is Lisa talking about?" Lincoln inquired.

"Well…" Lana and Lola both began with.

They took a deep breath and then proceeded to confess one at a time very quickly.

"I beat up one of the judges because she was saying really mean things about you!" Lola shouted.

"Then I hit the other judge with my wrench after he threw Lola to the ground!" Lana added.

"I couldn't help myself!"

"Me neither!"

"I'm so sorry, Linky!"

"So am I!"

"It's my fault!"

"Mine as well!"

"Okay, okay, settle down, please!" Lincoln implored to them.

The twins followed their brother's words and ceased speaking. However, both were also appearing to be on the verge of tears as the guilt resulting from their actions began to hit hard again. In return, Lincoln brought both of them into a hug while also looking back up at the rest of his sisters.

"Is that all true?"

"Yep, nothing but the truth." Lynn replied.

"But I don't understand. How did all this happen? Were you all talking to the judges and somehow all this broke down?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, the thing is, we were actually talking with them to see if there was any way we could get you and Clyde better movie roles because some of us started feeling bad about you guys." Leni explained.

"Yeah, but they weren't having any of it, dude. Then as you heard it from Lols, she thought that she heard one of the judges saying gnarly stuff about you and did a number on her, then Lans did what she did to the other judge, too." Luna followed up with.

"And thus, because of these frankly uncouth actions added on top our inability to prevent such, the judges stripped us of our designation as crowning achievers of the comics convention sort, thus also by extension stripping all of us to be seen on the silver screen." Lisa rounded off.

Now having learned the full story, Lincoln was feeling another mix of emotions. On the one hand, the fact that his sisters tried to get him and Clyde better roles both surprising and actually really nice to hear, even if he didn't necessarily think they may have deserved such. It went to show that despite the objectionable actions of the day that his sisters were willing to look past that and try to do him good in whatever way they could.

That being said though, knowing they wouldn't be featured in the movie anymore still wasn't something Lincoln liked learning and it didn't make the guilt he held from the day's events any better.

By this point, he also let go of Lana and Lola, allowing them to return to where they had been sitting.

"So that's the story on our ends, but right now we need to get back to learning why you and Clyde pulled off that whole scheme of yours in the first place." Lori said.

"Yeah, we really like to know, Lincoln." Luan followed up with.

There was no more avoiding the subject for Lincoln. He did have to admit to himself internally that no one had come off judgmentally towards him thus far and the hope was that'll stay the same as he finally let on with his reasoning.

"Okay, so Clyde and I just happened to overhear the judges talking at one point and they mentioned how much they loved you guys, but not so much us," Lincoln started off saying. "Fearing that we weren't gonna be crowned Kings of the Con along with you all, we tried doing other things, but nothing was impressing those judges."

He took a brief pause before continuing.

"So knowing that and I guess because we were desperate, that's when I came up with the idea of faking a crime so that me and Clyde could come to the rescue and make the judges be super impressed with us. But again, my plan was never to push you guys aside and I feel so awful both for what I did knowing that would've been the case."

Letting out a deep breath, Lincoln figured that since he got the explanation out there and out of the way, he assumed there was no further need in him taking part in this discussion.

"Listen, I appreciate you guys giving me the chance to explain what went down and for not totally coming down on me, but I do have some pretty important business that needs attending to. So if you don't mind, I've got to get going."

Before giving anyone else a chance to speak, he headed out of the room in a relatively quick pace. His brisk departure left the girls equal parts confused and even a little concerned.

One in particular felt like she had every reason to have serious worries about what her brother was planning to the point she needed to investigate.

"Guys, I'll be right back. I'm having a real bad feeling about this." Lori said.

She stood up, left the room and made it back up to Lincoln's bedroom door in no time. But before she could knock, the door suddenly opened for Lori to see Lincoln carrying a black trash bag with him. She then also realized this was the same object that caught her eye as she was retrieving him for their talk.

"Lincoln?" Lori inquired.

"Oh, uh...hi, Lori," Lincoln said, chuckling nervously. "Just taking care of that business I mentioned seconds ago. Taking out the trash, nothing more, nothing less."

He tried to move past his oldest sister, but she planted a hand on his shoulder to keep him in place.

"Lincoln, what's in the bag?" Lori asked a little sternly.

"I just told you, it's trash. What else goes in a trash bag?" Lincoln replied back defensively.

"But that does seem like a lot for just your room."

"Lori, don't make such a big deal about it! Now can you let me…"

As Lincoln struggled and grunted trying to get out of Lori's grasp, the bag slipped from his hand and partially opened up, causing the latter to see a small amount of the contents inside.

What she saw made her gasp.

"Lincoln, these are…"

So stunned she was that she simply couldn't finish her sentence. But words weren't entirely needed to convey the shocking act it appeared Lincoln was in the middle of.

Before anything could be done on his end, Lori hastily brought Lincoln, the bag and herself inside his room and shut the door behind them. She immediately turned her attention back to the bag and opened it up further just to make sure she wasn't merely seeing things. But nothing was deceiving her eyes as to the contents within.

"This all your Ace Savvy stuff."

Indeed, anything and everything relating to Lincoln's favorite superhero ranging from comics, action figures, posters and even the costume he just had donned earlier in the day were inside. If Lori didn't know any better, she was fearing the worst as to what was going to happen. Putting the bag aside, she knelt down and looked her brother straight in the eyes.

"Lincoln, please don't tell me you were planning to toss all this away." Lori said.

He didn't respond, only looking away in shame.

"Come on, Lincoln, answer me!" Lori insisted, grabbing both his shoulders

"...Maybe?" Lincoln meekly responded.

Just like when her brother was gobsmacked over learning his sisters didn't have their movie roles anymore, it was now Lori's turn to be at a loss of words. The idea of Lincoln giving up on one of his biggest passions like that seemed absolutely unfathomable.

"Lincoln...why? You can't be making this decision on the spot are you?" Lori wondered.

"Well, not entirely…" Lincoln began answering. "You see, immediately after I came back home, I tried taking my mind off everything by doing something more positive regarding Ace Savvy. But no matter what, I still felt bad. It got to the point where I can't even _look_ at anything relating to Ace without thinking about today's major blunder. So if that's the case, why should I bother anymore?"

After that admission, he sat down on the floor and hugged his knees.

"And even after that talk we just had a minute or so ago, I still feel so guilty everything. I'm so sorry, Lori. Today has to rank among the dumbest things I've ever done because I exploited my love for Ace to nearly cost you and our sisters everything. Had I never come up with that stupid 'fake a crime' scheme, you'd all still have your roles and all that stuff with Lana and Lola would've never happened. I'm sorry…"

Following that, Lincoln buried his face into his knees and let a prolonged shaky whimper. As he laid it out, there have been fewer instances in his young life where he's felt as bad over some misguided ploy of his like this most recent one.

"Hey, look at me."

Despite the guilt, he followed the words of his eldest sister, looking at her with an incredibly saddened expression on his face, one she hated seeing. She reached out and cupped his face with both hands.

"Listen, I'll just get this out of the way first. No one should try in excusing or justifying what was done today and you should regret having done so." Lori said.

Next, she sighed and moved one hand on top of his head.

"But that being said, I hate to see you beat yourself up harder than you need to and especially the idea of you getting rid of all this." She continued, gesturing to the bag.

Lincoln glanced back over at the bag again as well. His face creased upon peering inside within at the contents, then he looked back to his sister.

"Look, can you try giving this a couple days worth of thought? While I can't force you in what you want to do, it would literally break my heart to see you give up on something that has meant so much to you for as far as I can remember just because of what went down today. Can you at least promise me that to think it over?" Lori pleaded with him.

Even with how he's been feeling, Lincoln had to at least admit that the speed in which he was going with this was pretty short-sighted. For Lori's sake, he may as well commit to her suggestion.

"Okay, I promise...but no guarantees that I'll change my mind." Lincoln admitted.

"Sure, I understand. Thanks for at least giving a shot," Lori said. "But until then…"

She stood up, helped Lincoln up to his feet as well and then grabbed the bag herself.

"Wait, what are doing, Lori?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, I don't want to make it sound like I don't trust you or anything, but I still worry that you might do something rash such as still trying to toss these away. So what I'm going to do take everything to my room." Lori explained.

She looked her brother in the eye and put her free hand over her chest.

"But I swear to you hand over heart that all I'm doing is hanging on to everything until you've made your decision, which on a personal level I really hope you reconsider throwing all this away."

Though confused and a bit worried, Lincoln assumed this might be for the best. The temptation of tossing the stuff away should the bag remain in his room in those couple of days of thought Lori recommended he do.

With a sigh, he stepped closer to give his oldest sister a hug, one that Lori took as an agreement to this setup she's doing. She in turn responded with a one-armed hug of her own.

"One more thing, Lincoln. I can confidently say that myself and our sisters will be able to forgive you for all that's happened. It's how it tends to always pan out when everything is said and done." Lori told him.

When she did let go of Lincoln, she did see a tiny smile form on his face in spite of all the feelings of shame he's experienced so far today. Lori returned the favor with a smile of her own before she left him alone.

After leaving his room, she made it back over to her own room to tell her sisters what's she learned.

"Girls, we have a bit of situation here." Lori told everyone.

"Huh? Situation? What do you mean? And what's with that bag?" Lana asked.

"Well, just look…"

Lori put the bag in the middle of the floor and opened it up, whereupon the rest of the girls huddled around to look inside only to gasp.

"Wait, this is all of Lincoln's Ace Savvy stuff, isn't it?" Lynn asked.

"Yeah, what's going on here, Lori?" Lola followed up with.

"Well, apparently what happened is that once Lincoln came back home, he tried to take his mind off all that's gone on today with some of this. However, he told me that he feels so guilty about everything that he can't even look at this stuff, and though he stopped short of saying outright, he suggested that his plan was to throw all of this away." Lori responded.

"What?! But Ace Savvy's his biggest thing! I mean, he also digs video games and what have you, but this is easily what he puts his soul into the most!" Luna pointed out.

"And he's gonna give it all up just because of today? No matter what he did, he shouldn't even consider doing something like that! That'd be awful!" Luan said.

"I know and I've told him pretty much the same thing myself," Lori mentioned. "And the reason I have everything with me right now is because even though he's promised me that he'll give it a couple of days to think it over, I can't help but feel like he might try to do something like maybe toss them late at night. So until he makes a decision, I think it's best we keep everything here."

"But will he change his mind about something like this by then?" Lucy asked.

"Well, I'm worried he won't, Luce," Lori responded concernedly. "Which if you ask me is why we need to do something that could sway him to not getting rid of everything."

"And may we inquire as to what that may be, eldest sister?" Lisa wondered.

"Yeah, what can we do, Lori? I mean, it's not like we can do something totes super cool like getting our roles back in the movie." Leni lamented.

In the moment, the girls seemed at a loss over what they could do in order to prevent their brother from making what very well be an even more calamitous decision than even what he and Clyde did earlier on.

However, Leni's reference to the movie did spring to mind a potential solution.

"Wait, who said we can't do something like that?" Lori questioned.

"Huh? You mean we _can_ get our roles back, including for Lincoln and Clyde? How?" Lana asked.

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean," Lori began clarifying. "But I perhaps do have an idea that can both prevent Lincoln from giving up his things and help remind him how much fun he can have with Ace Savvy...and how _we_ can have fun with it, too."

With an ever increasing grin on her face, Lori motioned for her sisters to gather up into a huddle so she can explain her plan. One by one, they were being won over by it and convinced it had a real chance in doing the job in helping Lincoln.

For the next remainder of the day until dinner, Lincoln still kept to himself for the most part, which did give the girls all the time needed in order to lay out how exactly their plan would go. When dinnertime did eventually arrive, Lincoln finally did confess to the ordeal he and Clyde went through to his parents. Though naturally they weren't pleased when learning this, they reminded that all of their kids engaged in some kind of questionable behavior in the day and consequences would be doled out later.

Additionally, both Lynn Sr. and Rita also learned of Lincoln potentially wanted to rid himself of his Ace Savvy stuff in a couple days time, a move that obviously stunned them just as much as it did his sisters. However, those same sisters did assure their parents once Lincoln had left the dining room of their plan on top of that.

As the evening was drawing to a close, the girls held one last meeting together to iron out some last minute details of the plan. Then after that, as most of them were getting their evening bathroom business done, Lori took a moment to herself to make a crucial phone call to someone who she knew was going to be essential in helping out.

"Hello, Clyde? Yes, I know it's literally a surprise that I'm calling you and everything, but that's not important. Listen, the girls and I need your help with in doing something very special for Lincoln…"

As the conversation went on, Clyde was more than willing in being a part of the plan, even also adding his own input to what can be done. He and Lori also did agree to spend part of the following morning to confer further on the matter.

Finally before going to bed, Lori went to over to the closet where she stored the bag of Lincoln's Ace Savvy things. She opened it up and pulled out the one thing she knew would be essentially in pulling off the plan. A grin came across her face as she held up her brother's costume.

"I think you're going to need this...Ace."

* * *

The next morning, Lincoln got up at around 9:00, a good deal later than he typically would even on a weekend. Whether out of pure exhaustion or continued guilt over the prior day's events that kept him in bed longer than usual, he nonetheless started getting up and on with his day.

He gathered at set of clothes out of his dresser and opened the door to see no line for the bathroom; most likely due to him being the last one of his family up. He headed down there and proceeded to get all of his business done.

When that was all taken care of, Lincoln sent his pajamas down the laundry chute and headed downstairs. Something that right away struck him as unusual was how surprisingly quiet the house was. By the time he rounded over to the kitchen, the only individual he came across was his father.

"Ah, good morning, Lincoln." Lynn Sr. greeted his only son.

"Morning, Dad," Lincoln greeted back. "Sorry for being up late."

"No worries, son. It is the weekend after all, so it's not like you're expected to be up totally bright and early." Lynn Sr. said. "Say, up for a little breakfast?"

"Sure, I guess so." Lincoln replied.

"All righty, then!" Lynn Sr. said exuberantly. "How about you head on over to the living room until it's ready?"

With a simple nod and grin, Lincoln went over to the living room and kept himself occupied until then. Once again in that time, he still couldn't believe how devoid of activity or really anyone else in the vicinity. He'd investigate himself as why that is the case, but he'll chose to wait and ask his father about it once breakfast was served.

"All right, here you go!"

Just a few minutes later, Lynn Sr. also arrived in the living room holding a plate complete with some scrambled eggs, sausage patties and a fork in one hand, plus a glass of milk in the other. He placed them on the coffee table just within reach of his son.

"Thanks, Dad." Lincoln said.

He proceeded to get to work on it while Lynn Sr. also took a seat on the couch as well.

"Hey, Dad, are we the only ones home right now?" Lincoln asked. "I'm mean, I haven't seen anyone else yet since getting up."

"Yeah, we are, at least for a little while now," Lynn Sr. responded. "Your mother and your sisters are off on something of a girls day out of sorts. They left about a half hour ago, so it's again gonna be just us guys holding down Casa Loud."

"Oh, well...okay then." Lincoln said with a slight shrug.

A couple of minutes passed on as Lincoln ate his breakfast. But inevitably, his father felt the needed to bring up the shocking move his son considered doing until Lori convinced him to hold off on it for a while.

"So...I know you might not really want to talk about this, but have you made up your mind over what to do with your Ace Savvy stuff?" Lynn Sr. inquired.

"Not really, but I'm kind of still leaning towards tossing them." Lincoln replied, his tone quickly shifting more sadly as he sighed. '

"Well...listen, I can't force you over what decision you want to make, kiddo. But at the same time though, I can probably say with confidence that your mother and I would be pretty disappointed if you did go through with that," Lynn Sr. said, placing a hand on his son's back. "It would pretty much make all the money we've ever spent on that stuff seem like a waste."

Though he believed his father's intentions in not trying to influence him, Lincoln did have to admit that was another consideration never gave too much in the way of thought when he initially tried getting rid of his Ace Savvy things. It wasn't quite enough to totally convince him to do the opposite, but it was something else that made him realize his original plan of going ahead with tossing them at first without consultation more rash.

In the next minute, Lincoln finished his breakfast and took his dishes over to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Lynn Sr. got his phone out so he could send the following text.

" _Okay, Lincoln doesn't suspect a thing. How much longer do you need?"_

He didn't have to wait long at all to get a response from Lori.

" _Just give us like about 10-20 minutes and we'll be all ready."_

As Lynn Sr. wrapped up reading that text, Lincoln came back and began going back upstairs.

"So, what's your plan for the day, sport?" Lynn Sr. wondered.

"Uh...just gonna keep to myself for a little bit if that's okay with you." Lincoln answered.

"Oh, sure whatever you want." Lynn Sr. said.

As Lincoln did make it back to his room, he did whatever he could to occupy himself and keep his mind off the decision he had to make in the next day or so.

Several minutes later though, he was startled by some very frantic pounding on his bedroom door. He sprang off from his bed and opened it to see his father standing with a very worried look on his face.

"Dad? What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln, we have an emergency here! One-Eyed Jack has gone completely mad! He's hired some new henchmen and has kidnapped the Full Deck!" Lynn Sr. frantically explained.

"Um...wait, what? What are talking about?" Lincoln asked completely bewildered.

"Here, just look at this!" Lynn Sr. insisted.

He held his phone out in front of his son and played a video on it. In the beginning, it showed Clyde in his One-Eyed Jack costume laughing manically

" _Hello there, Ace. You surprised by this? Well, you shouldn't! I've been plotting this for a while and wanted to wait for the right opportunity to strike! Now the Full Deck is under my captivity! Don't believe me? Well...how about you take a look?"_

The video shifted over to a scene outdoors which Lincoln recognized as being the backyard of Clyde's home. There, he could see all his sisters in the attires of their respective Full Deck characters. It also showed they were indeed held captive in different manners, with his five older sisters tied up in one group, Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lisa tied up in another, and Lily held inside what appeared to be some kind of makeshift crib.

" _Do I have your attention now, Ace?"_ Clyde continued wickedly. _"With them in my possession, I might even have my chance at long last to win over the High Card!"_

" _Not even literally once in your lifetime!"_ Lori shouted.

" _We'll see about that,"_ Clyde said with a grin. _"Anyway, if you even want a chance to see the Full Deck again, you'll agree to come over to my back...er, my new headquarters!"_

" _Oh, he's gonna come and he'll kick your butt, Jack!"_ Lana said.

" _Yeah, Ace would do anything for us!"_ Lola added.

" _Oh, you think so, huh? Funny, I thought he already gave up in a sense if you catch my drift…"_ Clyde said with a wink. _"We'll see about that. I'll be waiting, Ace."_

" _Save us, L_ _inky_ _!_ _No wait, I mean, Ace! Can we do that over?_ _"_ Leni said correcting herself.

And with a series of chortling from Clyde and some slightly audible annoyed groaning from the rest of the girls, the video ended and put simply, Lincoln was absolutely flummoxed but what he just watched. But he didn't have enough time to process everything when his father then quickly whipped out Lincoln's Ace Savvy costume.

"So what do you say? You up for this challenge, no matter how difficult it may be on a personal level...Ace?" Lynn Sr. questioned.

"Dad, wait, I don't…" Lincoln attempted saying.

"Do it for the Full Deck," Lynn Sr. interrupted, then he leaned downed to whisper. "Do it for your sisters."

In the moment, Lincoln was slowly beginning to understand why his sisters were gone and perhaps also the reason for this whole scenario being done in the first. He was curious about how his mom factored into this and there was a tad bit of cynicism to this whole thing inside him as well.

However, this setup must've had some kind of effect on him because Lincoln would carefully take his costume into his hands and looked up to his father with a determined grin.

"Looks like it's time to deal out some justice…"

* * *

A drive over to the McBride residence later, Lincoln bounded out of Vanzilla's passenger seat.

"Good luck, Ace." Lynn Sr. told him with a wink.

Lincoln looked back over and returned the favor with a grin and wink of his own. He went up to the front door, assumed it may have been left unlocked just for him and opened it up. He looked around, exaggeratedly primed for anything that could come across his path on his way to the backyard. However, nothing of note impeded him along the way.

Eventually, Lincoln made it to the backyard and he immediately saw his sisters.

"Guys!" He shouted.

He rushed over to them, but he was stopped in his tracks when Clyde leaped out in front of him.

"Well...glad to see you've made it, Ace." Clyde said cockily.

Though it was a still a little off-putting to hear his best friend portraying a more villainous persona, Lincoln understood at this rate it was all part of an act, so he in return got into character himself.

"What's going on here, Jack? Why are you doing this?!" Lincoln demanded determinedly.

"I could tell you...but only if you manage to make it past my newly minted henchmen!" Clyde replied, snapping his fingers.

In an instant, Clyde's dads, Howard and Harold, popped out in their own admittedly slapdash, yet still very much colorful costumes.

"You might as well give up now!" Harold said.

"Yeah, otherwise you're going to, uh...regret it!" Howard added a little less assuredly.

As both McBrides primed themselves for a mock confrontation, Lincoln did the same. The former pair came rushing toward the latter, but all it took was a couple of intentional whiffing shots from Lincoln to cause them to go into over-exaggerative acts of falling down and groaning.

"We've failed you, One-Eyed Jack!" Both said wearily.

"Oh, come on! You can easily help me apprehend the Full Deck, but you fall just like that to Ace?!" Clyde mockingly chastised them.

Nevertheless, he grumbled and directed his attention over to Lincoln.

"All right, Jack, fess up! What's the motivation here?" Lincoln said.

"Hmph...shouldn't it be obvious by now? You've never seen me as an equal, only as your 'sidekick' and nothing more!" Clyde said. "Well, no more!"

"Really? That's it? Petty jealously is what this is all about? Unbelievable!" Lincoln fired back. "To think I expected you to be a man of character and-"

"Enough!" Clyde interjected. "I'm through with words! Time to prove that I'm truly the better half of this equation!"

With a determined shout, Clyde came running right after Lincoln and threw a mock punch that missed by a good foot. Lincoln did something similar, which lead to a struggle between them while trying obviously not to actually hurt the other.

Eventually after a couple of minutes, Lincoln gained the upper hand, but in doing so, he ended up accidentally making contact with Clyde, sending him flying back a bit. The impact caused Lincoln to gasp out loud and for a moment wanted to drop character and check up on his friend. However, assuming Clyde wasn't seriously harmed, he took the moment to head over to his sisters and successfully freed them.

"We'll keep an eye on those goons while you finish One-Eyed Jack off!" Lynn said.

As she and the rest of the sisters would go to do just that, Lincoln nodded and returned his focus back on Clyde; looking to end things. But as he almost did, his friend's eyes opened up.

"Ace…?" Clyde weakly said. "What's going on?"

"Jack?" Lincoln said, his tone becoming more worried.

He knelt down to his friend's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Jack...I don't know how to explain this, but you somehow were involved in a plot involving kidnapping the Full Deck."

"What? Really? I'd...I'd never do that...you know that right?"

"Of course not! Maybe you were under some mind control or something…"

"You think so? Actually, that could make sense."

"Yeah, and I'm sorry to say, but because of that, we actually had a big fight and I may have hurt you pretty seriously in the process. I'm really sorry about that."

"Hey, no worries. I do have something very important to tell you, though. Come a little closer…"

Obliging, Lincoln leaned down some and just as quickly as his friend was acting hoarse after their "fight", Clyde "miraculously" rose up and surprised Lincoln with a hug.

"You were amazing, buddy!" Clyde shouted gleefully.

With that, everyone else from Lincoln's sisters, to the McBrides and even Lynn Sr. who also emerged from hiding unexpectedly all began cheering and come on over to the boys' vicinity.

"Way to go, everyone! You were all great!" Lynn Sr. said.

Despite the somewhat overwhelming overlapping amounts of praise, Lincoln smiled and felt his heart fill with joy.

"So, what did you think, Lincoln?" Clyde asked.

"I..well...uh," Lincoln stammered with some laughter befo1re hugging Clyde "This was pretty amazing I have to say. Thank you so much, Clyde! You were great! This had to have been your idea, I know it!"

"Well, although I must admit I did feel rather uneasy about some aspects of the role I played, I do appreciate the compliment," Clyde said, pulling away from hug. "However, while I do like taking some credit, I think you might want to look towards another reason of this. Make that ten reasons."

Next, Clyde pointed and Lincoln looked in the direction where his sisters stood, each looking back with big smiles on their faces.

"Wait...this was all your idea?" Lincoln wondered.

Responding with only simple nods, the girls would openly welcome their only brother as he excitedly stood up and engaged in a group hug with them.

"Heh...guess this was the actual reason why you guys were gone earlier this morning." Lincoln said with a chuckle as he pulled back.

"Precisely, elder male sibling, so we could have the time to prepare for this caped crusade we've orchestrated. We can only hope the end result of our combined efforts were satisfactory." Lisa opined.

"Oh, it's more than that! Like I just said, it was amazing!" Lincoln reemphasized. "I'm amazed you guys put this together even though you've made your thoughts on comics and Ace Savvy perfectly clear to me many times before."

"Lincoln, our personal views on those things were completely irrelevant here. We did this because there's nothing in the near future that we would've hated more than seeing you giving up on something you love so much." Luan said.

"Yeah, and we want to remind you how much fun you have with them and how we can do the same alongside with you, no matter what we might think about them ourselves." Lucy added.

"All that is true, but to be very upfront and reemphasize what Luan just said, the primary reason we did this was to hope that it'll make you reconsider throwing everything all away," Lori said, kneeling down to her brother's level and putting her hand on his shoulder. "I know yesterday I said you have a couple more days to think it over, but I might as well ask the question: what will you do?"

It was the burning question that dominated Lincoln's mind since the previous afternoon. Both then and earlier in the morning, he felt that his mind was all but made up on the matter. But now with the lengths everyone around him took to give him this very fun experience, he made his choice.

"I don't have to think about it anymore...because there's no way I giving up anything. I'm keeping all of it!" Lincoln proudly declared with a big smile on his face.

Delighted to hear that answer, everyone cheered again in celebration.

"Oh, and one more thing since I figure you'll ask anyway, I can absolutely confirm that we forgive both you and Clyde for all that happened the other day, too." Lori said.

"Really? You do? Oh, thanks you guys! And though I can't absolutely guarantee I won't do anything truly dumb that impacts any of you all again, I'll at the very least promise that I will do everything in my power to minimize the chances of something like that happening." Lincoln affirmed.

He engaged in another quick group hug with his sisters, then he noticed something amiss.

"Hey, where's Mom out of curiosity?"

"Over here, sweetie!"

Just as Lincoln turned his head upon hearing her voice, Rita emerged out of some bushes with a video camera at hand.

"Wait...Mom, were you recording everything this whole time?" Lincoln inquired to her.

"Indeed I was," Rita answered, winking at her son. "Consider it one of the biggest details your sisters needed in this whole setup. Sure, it's not the same as being in a big time movie or anything, but hey, at least you can say you've been involved in your own little Ace Savvy cinematic experience on a much smaller scale."

Again, Lincoln smiled and he'd become so overcome with emotion, he took the mask off from over his eyes to wipe down a couple of tears that were forming.

"Sorry...I shouldn't really be like this right now," He said with a pair of chuckles. "I guess I can't really help it at the same time though."

"Hey, don't worry about it, Lincoln. No one blame's you at all. We did this all for you and we're all literally so happy that you're happy, too." Lori assured him.

For the third time, Lincoln felt himself engage in another group hug. Like his mom just said, it may not be entirely comparable to being in an actual movie, but this experience may have meant more as it involved several of the people he loved and cared about the most in his life.

* * *

Later in the afternoon back at the Loud house, Lincoln and his sisters sat in the living room together as they were watching the whole video recording from earlier in the morning on Lincoln's laptop. Many laughs and smiles were shared as they relived it for many times over.

"Oh, wow, this thing just keeps getting better each time we watch it!" Lincoln said.

"You ain't lying, Linc! This really was such an awesomely fun time to tell the truth." Lynn agreed.

"Yeah it was!" Lana added. "In fact, maybe we should stuff like this some more!"

"I wouldn't mind that at all actually." Lori said before turning to her brother. "And you know what else, Lincoln? I have to say that I believe this whole experience between yesterday and today has actually made all of us develop a much more healthier respect for your comics. I don't know what the chances of any of us developing a similar affinity for such could be, but I think we can all agree that they're more elevated in our respect levels for sure."

"The boss man's spittin' out some truth there, bro," Luna agreed. "And you know what else? I'd think we'd all be down in checking out the actual Ace Savvy flick when it comes out. Sure, none of us will be in it, but it'd still be fun to see together I'd say. Or when another one of those conventions comes around, we can also go there as well."

One by one, each of the sisters also shared in that sentiment, which naturally made their only brother quite happy to hear.

"Wow, really? I mean, I wouldn't want to impose any of those things on you guys. But if you're serious, I'd love to do all those things!" Lincoln said happily. "Also, I want to say again how much I appreciate what you did for me today. You're the best."

"Well, to be precise, it was our eldest sister here who was the true brainchild of everything." Lisa said, gesturing to said eldest sister.

"Oh, come on now…" Lori said with a little embarrassment. "But to act as quick change of subject, I've forgotten to get your Ace Savvy things from the closet in me and Leni's room, Lincoln. I should probably get go get them right about now."

"Oh, of course! Let me come with you, that way I can then easily drop them back off at my room." Lincoln offered.

"Uh, sure, whatever." Lori simply said.

Both of them scooted off the couch and headed on upstairs. By the time they reached the top though, Lincoln quickly gave his oldest sister a big hug, then looked up at her.

"Lori, if what Lisa just said is true, I cannot thank you enough," He said sincerely. "Not just for today, but for also stopping me in the nick of time from throwing all that stuff way. You really saved me from making a mistake perhaps even worse than what I did at the convention."

"Well...I do appreciate the thought, Lincoln, but I don't want to take literally all the credit here," Lori stated with a small smile. "It was truly a group effort from everyone downstairs and it brings me great relief you won't give up the one thing you love more than anything."

"Heh...thanks, Lori, but I wouldn't really say Ace Savvy or comics is the thing I love more than anything. That's instead reserved for you and all our sisters." Lincoln said, grinning and blushing.

Now it was Lincoln's turn to be on the receiving end of a hug from Lori, plus an added kiss on his forehead. Afterwards, she went into her room briefly and brought out the bag containing his things, then handing it over to him.

"Hey, thanks for what you just said, Lincoln," Lori told him, also patting him on the shoulder. "And remember that even if you feel real guilty about something you've done, don't use that guilt as an excuse to get rid of something of yours."

"Sure thing, Lori. I promise." Lincoln affirmed.

Following a smile and a quick mussing around of his hair, Lori opted to head back downstairs while Lincoln went to his room and put the bag inside. He chose to leave it there and come back later on to put everything back in their proper places.

As he too returned downstairs and back into the living room, Lincoln let another smile form on his lips. Besides thinking twice in doing something as calamitous as what he and Clyde did like what went down at the convention ever again, he also had another very helpful reminder that his sisters would always be there for him should he ever experience some kind of despair like he went through these past couple of days.

To put it another way, he knew that he had ten loving and powerful rays of empowerment that will help him overcome and persevere against any and all troubles that arrive and come his way no matter what they are.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahh...what a good feeling to finally have another one of these done!
> 
> So, like previous stories that I've written based on polarizing episodes, my goal is not to make a "better" version, but only to explore hypothetical scenarios worth exploring. Nothing more, nothing less.
> 
> Also, the heavy emphasis on interactions between Lori and Lincoln in this one wasn't an accident. In the time I've been gone, they've officially become my new favorite sibling pair, a title which Luna and Lincoln originally held essentially since I first started watching The Loud House back in April 2019. So yeah, exciting new development there!
> 
> And with that, we've come to the end. Again, apologies for the extended hiatus and though I can't guarantee it, we'll see if anything comes about next month. But until whenever I put out something else, I thank you all for reading, for all the support, take care and see you around next time!


End file.
